Why Work? To be productive; help a business or individual succeed, move society forward.

What’s work for? To build community with others. Offer goods and services that solve someone’s problem.

What does work mean? Commitment to a cause. Defining a goal and meeting it. Learning constantly. Being flexible and adaptable. Rising to the occasion.

How does it relate to the individual, others, society? It helps and hurts. It can nurture an individual that solves a problem for others that puts good into society. It can destroy an individual when work is about power and self-importance, causing chaos for others and harm to society.

What defines good or worthwhile work? When the one that works sees their role as part of a bigger picture. They are not in a selfie, consumed with what they get out of it, but what they give by doing it.

What does money have to do with it? Money is nice but too easy to define one’s ‘human’ worth by it; important to fight against vanity and greed. I believe that 98% of the people that work are underpaid. A huge distinction. It doesn’t mean they are undervalued. Volunteer / Charity and Pro Bono work are great examples. The work itself is valuable to both the giver and the receiver and the lasting effects / ripples of kindness continue to put good in the world.

What do experience, growth, and fulfillment have to do with it? Everything.

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2 thoughts on “Designing My Life”

Excellent philosophy! You added a lot of thought and extras into why work, not just for the monetary need, but for a higher purpose. You might want to consider, though, an add on to why work, To pay the bills! LOL! That’s the reality of why most everyone works. In many people’s eyes that’s the only reason they work. Unfortunately, many don’t get a lot of pleasure and fulfillment from their work, which is sad, but true. It’s a wage to be able to provide. I have friends who have admitted they don’t enjoy what they do, but it’s a living. But it is titled “My Philosophy of Work” and it is very noble. Or am I misreading it and this is an excerpt from the book you referenced.

You didn’t misread, it is My Philosophy of Work. It’s an exercise in the book to help you define what work means for yourself so you can then have the idea of what you want as you ‘design/build’ the life you want. Most people do have to work to pay bills. While I don’t really believe in working just to pay the bills, because being a SAHM, a volunteer, and other, then would not count as work. I also believe that when you are doing something that you like and are good at, the success / pay will work itself out. 😉

There’s only been a short time in my life when I had to work to pay the bills, and that was the first five years after I graduated high school. I paid my way through college working three jobs, while going to school 18 hours a semester, graduating with honors, and still finding time to volunteer and be active in the community. Since that time, I’ve had a long journey of discovering not only myself, but what I define as work. I think I worked hard to attain a goal to graduate towards the top of my class and have the prospect of starting a life I wanted. To put so much effort and time into a goal that never was realized is something I’ve wrestled with a lot of the years. I had to adjust my life completely to allow my husband to take full control / rein of money responsibilities. It wasn’t easy to define myself as SAHM, or taking whatever job was available wherever we were living. It’s not the plan I had for myself!

This exercise really let me reflect on that and what it means for me today, as I return home to USA, and start an actual path to a career! A few simple questions that bring 39 years of history behind it. I do feel fortunate, even though it came with a lot of pain and anger at times, to know that I have the freedom to pursue whatever design that works for me. I’m not going to be trapped in a position that leaves me miserable at 5pm, and covering my head with a pillow at 6am when the alarm goes off. Brings to mind the saying / Bible verse, “To whom much is given, much is required.”